New Releases: June 15th-21st, 2023

The specter of an abandoned E3 means fewer titles this week. But fear not, between titles like Crash Team Rumble, Aliens: Dark Descent, Park Beyond, and Nukitashi (pictured) there are still plenty of notable new releases to divert between the fragmented pressers.

PlayStation 4
Alchemic Cutie (physical $34.99, digital $19.99)
Aliens: Dark Descent (physical & digital, $39.99)
Crash Team Rumble (physical & digital, $39.99)
F1 23 (physical & digital, $69.99)
Fall of Porcupine (digital, $16.99)
Mercenaries Blaze: Dawn of the Twin Dragons (physical, $34.99)
Robolt (digital, $4.99)
Steel Assault (digital, $14.99)
The Elder Scrolls Online: Necrom (digital, $59.99)
The Last Hero of Nostalgaia (digital, $24.99)

PlayStation 5
Aliens: Dark Descent (physical & digital, $39.99)
Crash Team Rumble (physical & digital, $39.99)
F1 23 (physical & digital, $69.99)
Gal Guardians: Demon Purge (physical, $39.99)
Park Beyond (physical & digital, $49.99)

Switch
Alchemic Cutie (physical $34.99, digital $19.99)
Amaze! Time Attack Edition (digital, $4.99)
Birdie Wing -Golf Girls’ Story- (digital, $19.99)
Convergence: Golden Ekko Skin (DLC, $1.99)
Dig Deep: Premium Pets Bundle (digital, $5.99)
Gal Guardians: Demon Purge (physical, $39.99)
Horse Club Adventures 2: Secrets of Skeifa (DLC, $14.99)
Jack Jeanne (physical & digital, $49.99)
JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: All-Star Battle R – Alternate World Diego (DLC, $4.99)
Mystical Mixing: Arcane Edition (digital, $5.99)
ProtoCorgi (digital, $6.99)
Summer Daze: Tilly’s Tale (digital, $11.99)
Super Mega Baseball 4 Peril Point Stadium (DLC, $4.99)
Sweet Bakery Tycoon Co-op Edition (digital, $6.49)

Xbox One
Aliens: Dark Descent (physical & digital, $39.99)
Chess Gambit (digital, $7.99)
Crash Team Rumble (physical & digital, $39.99)
F1 23 (physical & digital, $69.99)
Fall of Porcupine (digital, $16.99)
Nova Lands (digital, $17.99)
Park Beyond (physical & digital, $49.99)
Shark Pinball (digital, $2.99)
Stay Out of the House (digital, $17.99)
Steel Assault (digital, $14.99)
The Elder Scrolls Online: Necrom (digital, $59.99)

PC
Aliens: Dark Descent ($39.99)
Bandit Brawler ($TBA)
BattleBit Remastered ($14.99)
Convenience Stories ($TBA)
Deducto 2 ($TBA)
Dream Park Story ($TBA)
F1 23 ($69.99)
Fall of Porcupine ($16.99)
Feed All Monsters ($TBA)
Immortal Tales of Rebirth ($TBA)
It’s Only Money ($TBA)
Jorel’s Brother and The Most Important Game of the Galaxy ($6.15)
Kingdom of Wreck Business ($TBA)
Layers of Fear ($16.49)
Nova Lands ($17.99)
Nukitashi ($TBA)
Park Beyond ($49.99)
ProtoCorgi ($6.99)
Salty Hounds ($TBA)
Six Days in Fallujah ($TBA)
The Bookwalker: Thief of Tales ($TBA)
Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Extraction ($10.00)
Trepang2 ($TBA)

Rob’s pick: As Severed Steel and Superhot demonstrated, slow motion just might be a first-person shooter panacea. When the tempo reaches a snail’s pace, responsiveness and reaction times are escalated, providing some of the best power-fantasy around. Bounding around a room, evading enemy fire, as your shots repeatedly hitting the mark is a consistently addictive sensation. As such, I’m looking forward to Trepang2 which looks like it has a decent chance of delivering the goods.

Also, let me continue the appreciation for Contra for a second consecutive week by giving a nod to Steel Assault. I never quite tired of a good run-and-gun, and Zenovia Interactive title delivers all the hectic, sprite-based action to keep old-timers like me delighted. Finally, I’m really glad that Ryan mentioned Hardcore Henry because if you appreciate FPS games, you must watch this movie. Sure, an entire movie shot from a first-person perspective sounds gimmicky, but director Ilya Naishuller’s rarely lets the tempo slacken.

Ryan’s pick: I’ve still really been enjoying myself in Diablo IV in World Tier III, and compared to the previous game the game has done a good job of satisfying the completionist in me with lots of various side quests and things to find. This, on top of last week’s Community Day and out catching hundreds of Axew mons, my gamer plate has been quite full. Looking through the releases this week, to be honest I don’t have too much I’m interested in, with the exception of Trepang2.

Looking back, it’s been a really long time since I’ve played an FPS game, and this feels like a very good way to get back into the genre. I really, really liked the Max Payne and Red Dead Redemption series for their bullet-time mechanics, so I think this particular game will be a good fit for me. The visuals remind me a bit of the movie Hardcore Henry in terms of speed of the action and the various levels of mayhem you can cause, so I’m in.

Matt S’ pick (editor, DigitallyDownloaded): One of the flipsides of it being Not-E3-But-Game-Showcases week is that there are relatively few actual games released. But that’s okay. With what’s on the horizon, the break this week is most welcome anyway.

I’ve already said Jack Jeanne in a previous one of Robert’s wraps. It really is my favourite visual novel though, given the theatre/ballet/opera theming of it and the authentic way it handles that. Putting that game aside I might as well go with something light this week. Birdie Wing -Golf Girls’ Story- looks like it’ll be a bit of fun. After all, I like golf as a sport, and I like anime girls. I’m still playing Easy Come, Easy Golf on the Switch, so perhaps this one will pull me away for a while.

Elsewhere Park Beyond is a good, fun time. It probably doesn’t do enough to distinguish itself from the other theme park builder simulations other there, but if you can’t get enough of that genre, this one won’t do you wrong, either.